[Itinerary Page]The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
May 24 - Around Piemonte
I can see already that we are going to have to spend more time in this area. The feel is very different from what we are used to in Tuscany and Umbria. We have been told that the farther south you go, the more Italian it gets -- a theory we will have to test one day. For now we are enjoying the intense green rolling hills covered with vineyards. The architecture reminds me more of Austria, particularly the church towers. For the most part, the houses are painted rather than natural stone. Red tile still seems to be the roofing material of choice.
All in all, this area looks newer. There are obviously old sections, to be sure, but it seems to me that the majority of the buildings have been built in the last 200 years or so. In this country, that is new construction!
The first stop of the day was in Canale, the closest town to the Villa Tiboldi. We were surprised to run into market day. We arrived at noon and many of the vendors were already starting to pack up, but we did manage to find a few things we had been looking for ... and at unbelievably cheap prices! Had we had known there was a market on, we would have rolled out earlier.
Then we went off in search of lunch, cruising around the back roads until we arrived in the town of Asti. This is also the heart of a major wine-producing area, the most familiar of which is probably the Asti Spumante (literally sparkling wine of Asti). While I am sure there are sights to see in town, we were focused on finding a place that was still serving lunch at 2:00 -- a difficult task in this country where everything seems to close from 1-5pm. But perseverance pays off and we managed to find a bowl of decent pasta to hold us over until dinner. Margene did some emergency menu translation duty for a group of students from Hong Kong who had just arrived and knew nothing of Italian menu terms. I suspect they will learn quickly.
The pleasant surprise of the day was that the restaurant at the Villa Tiboldi was, in fact, going to be open. The literature seemed to indicate the contrary. So without the need to drive around the countryside in the dark, we napped a bit and enjoyed the short commute to an excellent meal.
From here on we start being governed by schedules again. Check-out time here, check-in time at the hotel in Milan, arrival time at the airport on Thursday, flight schedules, connections -- it makes my head ache just to think of it ... so I try not to think of it. However, with those demands to be met, I will make no promises about tomorrow's final installment of this journal. The best I can promise is that I will finish it on the flight and get it uploaded on Friday. Ciao for now.
© 2005 Restaurant Doctor